It's a two way street, is it not (see below posted letters...I highlighted the good stuff in red) I'm not a pro on this topic, which is why I started the thread, but it would be true that he wasn't bound in fact to notify anyone of anything if a city is fortified and therefore a definitive military target? The letter below actually requests Hood's help in evacuating civilians out of Atlanta. As far as I am concerned, that was his only real responsibility (morally)...no? I don't know, I'm sort of just raising arguments to offer an opposing side to yours. I would love to hear your feedback. Don't take my posts personally. - Jessie

[On 7 Sep 1864, Maj Gen Sherman, commander of Union forces occupying Atlanta GA, sent a letter to Gen. J.B. Hood, commander of opposing Confederate forces, requesting his cooperation in the peaceful evacuation of civilians, mostly pro-Confederate, from Atlanta, which was to be converted into an exclusively military fortress and target.Gen. Hood wrote back agreeing to cooperate, since "I do not have any alternative in this matter," but added a reproach.]
[letter by Gen. Hood to Gen. Sherman]
"Permit me to say that the unprecedented measure you propose transcends, in studied and ingenious cruelty, all acts ever before brought to my attention in the dark history of war.
"In the name of God and humanity, I protest, believing that you will find that you are expelling from their homes and firesides the wives and children of a brave people."
--letter, dated 9 Sep 1864, from Gen. J.B. Hood to M.Gen. W.T. Sherman
Vol. II, p. 119.
[Reply by Gen. Sherman to Gen. Hood]
"In the name of common-sense, I ask you not to appeal to a just God in such a sacrilegious manner. You who, in the midst of peace and prosperity, have plunged a nation into war-- dark and cruel war -- who dared and badgered us to battle, insulted our flag, seized our arsenals and forts that were left in the honorable custody of peaceful ordnance-sergeants, seized and made 'prisoners of war' the very garrisons sent to protect your people against negroes and Indians, long before any overt act was committed by the (to you) hated Lincoln Government; tried to force Kentucky and Missouri into rebellion, spite of themselves; falsified the vote of Lousiana; turned loose your privateers to plunder unarmed ships; expelled Union families by the thousands, burned their houses, and declared, by an act of your Congress, the confiscation of all debts due Northern men for goods had and received! Talk thus to the marines, but not to me, who have seen these things, and who will this day make as much sacrifice for the peace and honor of the South as the best-born Southerner among you! If we must be enemies, let us be men, and fight it out as we propose to do, and not deal in such hypocritical appeals to God and humanity. God will judge us in due time, and he will pronounce whether it be more humane to fight with a town full of women and the families of a brave people at our back or to remove them in time to places of safety among their own friends and people.
--from a letter, dated 10 Sep 1864, from W.T. Sherman to J.B. Hood
Vol II, pp. 120-121